1.27.2013

I'm a loser, baby...

Yesterday the dresses I'd ordered for my friend's bachelorette party in April arrived (we're all wearing $17-25 "bridesmaid" dresses from Target). Since I was unsure of size and the reviews were that the dress fits pretty off, particularly through the chest, I ordered a 4 and a 6. I tried the 6 on and it fits reasonably well...though the fit through the ribcage is really snug and I have a tiny ribcage (a 32-34 band size in most bras). If I gain so much as a pound I think I will split the seams or be suffocated--good incentive to keep losing!

It's a big win for me to squeeze into a 6. This Summer I was in a similarly-cut size 8 Target dress with plenty of give. 2 months ago I was pushing a size 10. 16#s of fat loss make a world of difference on a shorty. The remaining 12#s I have to lose should easily have me fitting a size 4, which is right where I want to be.

On a bit of a downside, since making the switch to a ketogenic diet I have been battling nausea during pretty much all of my runs. For a while I thought it was side-effects from the pain meds I was on for my wrist, but I'm only taking those meds at bedtime, now, at most...so just 1 low dose/day. I'm not bonking at all, just feeling borderline pukey, especially if I try to push the pace/effort at all (which is tough to avoid when running in snow--it's hard work!). I'm not noticing this so much while on the nowhere bike, but that could be because I'm still riding relatively gently...hard to push with much intensity when I still can't put full weight on my right wrist. And my sit bones have not re-adapted to the bike, so more than an hour in the saddle is not yet comfortable

I asked the other keto endurance athletes I know online (and one I know IRL) about this and no one has had this experience with nausea. It's starting to harsh my running buzz, though. One suggested that it could be "keto-flu," but I am not experiencing this at any other time and have always been one of those fortunate souls who can go from a higher-carb diet to ketogenic carb levels without any ill effects during the transition, when most people would get Atkins/Keto-flu. Quite the opposite. Making the transition always made me feel like a million bucks.

One guy said it took him a solid 6 weeks before he felt fully "keto-adapted," so I'm going to give it another 2 weeks to see if the nausea relents. But in that time my mileage is increasing and I have a 6 miler and 7 miler in that period. I know I can't continue to run further than that if I'm queasy (and raw ginger and diet ginger ale aren't really helping). My 40th birthday is ON Mardi Gras, so that seems like an ideal time to revert back to a carbier diet, for a while...I don't want to entirely forgo a pączki or 3 on the big day. Or beer.

If the workout nausea continues for the next couple of weeks, then I'm probably going to do something on the order of the South Beach diet, but not as low-fat. Simply avoiding sugar, white flour, potatoes, and white rice...crap carbs, and emphasizing whole foods and lower glycemic carbohydrate sources. Maybe trying to stick with 100-200 carbs/day, instead of under 50.

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